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Age of Nostalgia (Age of Empires: Definitive Edition)

One of the oldest games RTS games is being revived and what better way to do so than on its 20th anniversary with an all new game changing facelift. The newest edition of Age of Empires is all set to rule the RTS space once again and by the looks of it, IT IS HERE TO STAY!

The Age of Age of Empires

Microsoft definitely had one of the stronger events at E3 2017 this year. And the main highlight was the announcement of Age of Empires: Definitive Edition. The latest edition promises to be a nostalgic trip down memory lane for old-timers and gamers of yesteryear and an exciting new prospect for newbies alike. The game is being launched to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Age of Empires series, the golden boy of real-time strategy games.

It was unveiled by Adam Isgreen, the creative director of Microsoft Studios who himself has a lot of experience with the RTS genre having worked on the Command and Conquer series previously. This edition is said to contain the original base game along with the Rise of Rome expansion. The completely revamped version has a total of 10 campaigns (8 from the original and Rise of Rome expansion. In addition to this, probably 2 new bonus campaigns) for players to complete.

HD: Highly Definitive

This time around, the game boasts of fully re-mastered visuals in 4K ultra HD, improved textures (which is a quantum jump from how the cliffs and buildings looked in the previous games) and upgraded art assets. On the sound front, they’ve re-recorded and re-orchestrated an actual symphony with a completely new narration. Two noticeable improvements in the game mechanics are additionally improved zoom (or God-view as we’d like to call it, which is a super zoom-out feature) and improved motion in 16 directions which is very fluid in place of the previous blocky rigid movements. They have also introduced multiplayer support via Xbox live for online play. As a bonus, they’ve included a classic mode for a vintage AOE experience.

Not So Definitive

AOE: Definitive edition ironically enough doesn’t have a definitive release date yet. It is suspected to release in the month of October which is when the first of the Age of Empires games announced itself to the world back in 1997. The E3 launch was more of a teaser event; the real fireworks can be expected at Gamescom which is going to be held in August at Cologne, Germany. If you can’t hold your horses till then, you can sign up for the beta version with an Xbox live account.

Bill Gates actually commented on his Reddit AMA held last year to get back to an unanswered question on the possibility of a new game in the series. The pressure on this game to deliver is humongous and we can only hope that it succeeds in delivering beyond our expectations.

SKOAR! is India's Premier Gaming Website. SKOAR! began its journey as a bi-monthly publication in 2003 and has since kept growing. Through this journey, it has evolved from a purely print magazine to an interactive magazine and now, has made its foray into the digital space. BTW, why on earth are you reading this part? Ran out of articles to read? Weren't we entertaining enough? Maybe you're just bored, so you might as well go pester the editor or troll someone in the comments ;-)